photo of the day 14.01.09

photo of the day 12.01.09

Making a mess out of her breakfast. I made her crepe filled with yoghurt and caramelized bananas* and let her eat it with her hands. Ended up feeding it to her because she squished and dumped half of it into her bib. She finished almost everything though!

She likes the mouse. When she sees me on the laptop, she cries and wants to be carried to the table - she'll then peer intently into the screen, fiddle with the keyboard and click on the mouse.

The girl has a fascination with shoes. She will walk up to the shoe rack and take a variety of my shoes out. Sometimes she walks over to me and hands me the shoe, other times she will wear them and walk around. She also likes her Dad's shoes. Once I caught her with her foot in his boot.

* Here's the recipe I concocted.

Crepe 1/4 cup plain flour

1 egg

water

1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the flour, egg and sugar together. Add enough water to create a think pouring consistency. Lighly butter a frying pan and ladle enough batter to form a think layer on the pan. Flip when underside browns slightly, and cook several minutes on the other side.

Caramelized bananas

Slice a ripe banana. Melt a tsp of butter in the frying pan and add the bananas in. Cook till bananas soften and brown slightly.
Spread a layer of yoghurt on the crepe, and top with banana. Wrap it up into a neat package and slice it up for your child.

I had my crepe with a layer of nutella topped with the banana. It was yummy!

photo of the day 10.01.09

Her little pink sofa, which she loves. She likes to climb onto it and shake her legs to the music from the CD player. She climbs onto it angling her body sideways - first her right leg, then hand on the back of the seat to steady herself, left leg up and then flip to the front. She's also taken to standing up on it and trying to jump off.

my mummy likes taking close ups of my face

08.01.09

school

Figure i'll just keep blogging and figure out the post dated entries later. I'll stop blogging for good otherwise!

The latest development for ellis is that she's now attending "school"!

Ever since she turned one and started walking actively, she's been a bundle of energy and I felt she was getting quite bored at home. I'm not the type of mum who will actively structure learning activities so I felt kinda guilty that she wasn't exposed to more when she's absorbing everything like a sponge.

I was thinking of trying Growing Up Gifted or Julia Gabriel and decided on the latter based on word of mouth recommendation. I brought her for her first class yesterday. I thought I was setting myself up for disappointment because I had pretty high expectations given all the good reviews from friends, but it was really quite impressive, and a lot of fun - even for me!

I particularly enjoyed the story telling session - teacher Lin read a book called "Titch" and had lots of fun sounds and actions to accompany the story. All the kids paid rapt attention - something which I thought was very commendable given the distracted kids I've seen at other classes I've been to.

Ellis not unexpectedly, ate 3 cookies versus the other kids' 1 or 2 during snack time and wanted more. Ignoring the half eaten cookie on her plate, she kept pointing at the container full of cookies that the teacher's assistant was holding. Since I'm told that what I'm paying for in fees goes mainly to the organic food served, this cannot be a bad thing.

For a hour and a half, the kids did sponge stamping, ran around in the playground, played with bubbles, sang songs. She's still not of the age where I can just leave her at class and take a break while she's there, but I was still glad for a proper structured programme and for the interaction with other kids.

She conked out in the car on the way home. And finally I was able to put her down for a nap in the afternoon - something which has barely happened since she turned one. I'm looking forward to the next class :)

photo of the day 04.01.09

ellis is in a H&M marimekko outfit (compelte with sombrero-ish hat) from her 3 fashion forward (& fashion loving) aunties in London - Toon, YJ & Pat

...and.....

FLING!!!

What is Ellis Doing Now? 13 Months

It's been a while since my last development update, and I probably can't remember all the intermediate steps but here's where she is now:

She's grown into a little person with such a personality! Based on my observations so far, I'd say she is a cheerful, happy, active and determined child. If you read Tracy Hoggs like I do, I would place her as a cross between an angel & spirited toddler.

+ Relentless. She enjoys exploring all things curious and new to her, like the wires behind the stereo, the toilet bowl. The more I try to stop her the more she tries to get at it. She remembers things that she's seen that I won't allow her to touch, and the minute she gets a chance, she goes for it. 

I've had to haul her out of the kitchen countless times loudly telling her "No!". She knows she's not supposed to come back in but she will stick one foot inside the kitchen door all the while checking for my reaction, and almost always will wind up back in the kitchen. Once I wasn't watching she came walking out grinning with a dishcloth between her teeth. I gave up and installed a safety gate.

Sneaks past me in the kitchen (yet again) as I'm preparing food to get to the yard - so she can stick her head into our front loading washing machine and peer around. 

She probably got this gene from me - my parents have reminded me often enough what a terror I was as a child.

+ A little whirlwind.  Gone are the days where she would sit down quietly and flip a book. She tears around the house non-stop leaving a trail of chaos in her wake. DVDs and books swept off shelves. Contents of my overturned handbag on the floor. Junk mail thrown in the trash strewn all over.  

+ Most definitely not the gentle sort Rams walkers into walls. Runs with abandon. Tosses and flings items with force everywhere - including remote controls, cordless phones, my mobile phone (cover ripped off). The alignment of my glasses is completely askew after she flung herself on my face several times.

+ NO!!! ELLIE!!!! Aiyoooo.....words constantly used by Kisu and I around the house these days.

+ Walking. She learned to walk pretty quick. When she started (just before she turned 1) she refused any assistance or hand holding. She figured that falling on her butt is the best way to cushion her fall, and then she graduated to running!

+ Communicating a whole lot more. Shakes her head violently when she doesn't want something. Points resolutely and vocally expresses herself  if it's something she wants. 

+ Happy Gives us big squinty-eyed mouth-wide-open gummy grins. Claps. Chuckles loudly, shrieks when excited, squeals when tickled.

+ Seems a lot more social.  Is totally a little flirt - when she spots a stranger she likes (say a fellow mum at the paed clinic, or someone in a public lift) she tilts her head and smiles coyly at them (!) Not shy when it comes to food. She went after a daddy feeding his 10 mth old at a recent party - she wanted some of the banana puffs he had in his hand.

+ Manja - will come running & smiling at me as I'm seated on a chair and bury her face in my knees. Awww!

+ Sleep habits all gone haywire, her morning nap is a no go and afternoon naps are tough to put her down for. She rarely falls asleep as I rock her - she's developed a squirmy gene and has slept anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. I am quite a wreck because of the lack of break I have from her. Nighttime is very good - she sleeps from 730 to 7am. Thank God!!!! But we had about a month of blips.  She has done everything from waking every 2 hours, keeping us up for up to 1.5 hours and for a period, kept waking at 5.15am, sharp. Kisu and I were a complete mess then. The worst was during the 2 weeks my inlaws were in town and staying with us. I finally had help and could go out but all I could think of was sleeping!

+ Eating She's no longer the baby who eats everything and anything, alas. Still loves her food except that she's become more picky. No more porridge. She likes rice - sometimes. She'll eat cheese, bread, eggs, cheerios, kix, yoghurt and practically any fruit. But all the other stuff she used to eat without a fuss is now not so easy.

*I'll be doing a tonne of post dated entries & pictures very soon.